Anyone traveling around Tyson’s Corner has seen the rebuilding of much of the infrastructure first hand. There will be a new Metro-rail line which includes a short tunnel from International Drive to Route 7, the reconfiguration of the beltway to include HOT lanes, and the underground utility realignments. Any change this big generates growing pains, and the one they can never seem to get a handle on is gridlock.
According to a report that I heard today on WTOP from the Washington Business Journal, the construction mess in Tyson’s motivated one business to move back to Bethesda. Danielson Associates, a firm that has been researching, consulting and investment banking for community banks since 1978 considered the traffic mess to be inconvenient for accessing many DC clients. One down for Virginia; one up for Maryland.
There was an amazing story from one of the utility contractors who was digging a trench and 
snapped a cable not identified on any utility map. As he pondered what to do, three Chevy Suburban’s with U.S. Government plates pulled up within 5 minutes to say “you snapped our cable”. The contractor mentioned that it usually takes days to determine who owns a cable.
These projects should help with our constant traffic and gridlock issues that have been growing pains of Tyson’s Corner since the 1980’s. Having a driving strategy has been an objective of most clients over the past ten years that influenced where they decide to live, but real estate appraisers overlook this “X-factor”. Commuting time remains a huge factor in maintaining values of real estate in Arlington, McLean, and Vienna.
